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Towelhead
Warner Bros. // R // December 30, 2008
List Price: $27.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Film:
Based off of Alicia Erian's edgy coming of age novel, writer/director Alan Ball's Towelhead (aka Nothing is Private) wages a battle against anti Arab-American sentiment -- while also plowing into a thirteen-year-old girl's journey through a series of turbulent sexual escapades. We're working with a blight highlighted by a sea of blunt instruments, sporting a supporting cast that bludgeons the viewer with a barrage of idioms like "camel jockey" and others to really hammer a point home -- brash elements expected from a film that contains a racist slur as its title. It's a message that takes some force to relay in some directions, but Towelhead concentrates so hard on making its content important and challenging that it forgets to draw out a fully engaging drama with its furious brushstrokes.
But there's one sharp weapon in the mix: Summer Bishil. She plays Jasira, the focal half-Lebanese teenage girl recently transplanted from Orange County to her flagrant, overcompensating father's home locatedin the middle of a richly clichéd Texan/American town. Jasira's sent to live with him after she starts to exhibit more feminine behaviors that skew from her cultural heritage, brought to her mother's attention by her step-father's assistance with some private "hair removal". Once Jasira arrives at her new prison-like home and gets acclimated to the abrasion present at both her school and her job as a babysitter for the neighbors, she must acclimate to her father's much starker, conservative environment that emphasizes inequality between men and women, prejudices based on the color of skin, and a brewing ferocity ignited by the Persian Gulf War. That's one of the film's more clever tricks, as it plays with the fabric of that late '80s thematic tension in a way that can mirror post-9/11 issues as well.
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Jasira's environment, guides along by American Beauty writer Ball, is littered with a wealth of fiery characters affected by the time period -- from her unreasonable father and oddly superficial mother, to a passionately-confused reserve soldier -- who create a claustrophobic environment for Towelhead that can be both thought-provoking and furiously bull-headed. Everyone does an admirable job at bringing their characters to life; both Maria Bello and Toni Collette, a pregnant do-gooder attempting to influence Jasira's life, illustrate the stark differences between their maternal figures to an acceptable degree, while Peter Macdissi orchestrates his anti-father figure with punch and potency. However, they all attempt to act off of, mold with, and attempt to grasp the central character at the heart of Towelhead: racism.
When the supporting characters try to "communicate" with the film's motive-driven energy and blunt dialogue, they become murky, inconsistent collages of stereotypes that flare up at inopportune times for the sake of anecdotal force. The only supporting performance that offers a complex, non-linear character to the mix that is Aaron Eckhart's southern-twang pervert Travis, a role that exercises his ability to tweak his chiseled façade towards more naturally corrupt parts outside of the Batman universe. It's not a bad character study, by any means, but Alan Ball's film constantly fights to establish a satisfying rhythm between its purpose-driven American denizens and a persistently aggressive tone. Some might think that the two shouldn't flow parallel to each other anyway -- especially since it does such a blatant job at outlining the characters, all the while shining a spotlight directly on young Bishil's head -- but Towelhead's determination to communicate messages clouds the big picture more and more as this aggressiveness escalates.
Towelhead fairs much better, though, when it focuses on sexual awakening. Jasira becomes the central element (instead of of the story with this more deftly-realized conflict, one that still couldn't exist without the impending Arab-American aggression created at the forefront. On top of dealing with Travis sending her mixed signals as she ebbs and flows from his house amid babysitting sessions, she's also struggling with her arousal at peering into Playboy-esque porno mags and her ping-ponging relationship with Thomas, a black teenage boy who starts their relationship by calling her one of the aforementioned derogatory names. A laundry list of conflicts rises to the surface of Jasira's new life, all of which shape and mold the girl at a much younger age than they should. It takes a talented and daring actress to shape and mold her character with all of these conflicts, a feat that Summer Bishil handles exceedingly well. Her attitude and carriage adapts at a smooth rate, highlighting her transition into pre-womanhood as Towelhead's most graceful and impacting element.
The DVD:
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Video and Audio:
Warner Bros.' have given Towelhead an adequate digital transfer that accentuates the Newton Thomas Sigel cinematography well in its theatrically-released 2.35:1 anamorphic image. Digital grain has become a bit of a problem with some of WB's recent releases; this disc doesn't arise unscathed, as some garbling of facial features occurs in several portions. There's also a patch or two of edge enhancement and color bleeding visible, an issue that becomes clear in the flagpole scene by excessive blue blooming from a shirt. Outside of that, this is a mostly pleasant transfer, highlighted by rich colors, careful attention shadow details within the dark image, and solid use of textures.
In the sound department, Towelhead does just about everything you'd expect from a sumptuously-photographed character drama. Its Dolby Digital 5.1 track cradles the speech well, only rarely containing a scene or two that display difficulties in audibility. Also, the ever-splendid Thomas Newman score sounded lush and lively, adding to the cultural flare lying underneath the film's tone. English and French language tracks are made available, along with English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Special Features:
Towelhead: A Community Discussion:
What we've got here is a pair of lengthy dialogues featuring director Alan Ball, actors Summer Bishil and Peter Macdissi, and Council of American-Islamic Relations representative Hussan Ayloush at one sitting, and with Alan Ball, author Alicia Erian, and SALDEF legal director Rajdeep Singh Jolly at another. But it's a doozie of a supplement, clocking in at around twenty or so minutes less in length than the feature itself.
With Alan Ball "moderating", he interacts with the Arab-American filmmakers and activist by challenging them with questions regarding their personal life ("were you ever called a Towelhead" etc) and the construction of the aggressive film. They talk about giving the slurs power -- or a lack of giving them power, in Summer Bishil's words -- as well as the discomforts that CAIR addressed about the title and the content. When the second dialogue starts, some real aggressiveness kicks into gear when the content of the film grows with hardened discussion, especially with the banter between Ball and Erian. It's not just layers and layers of wine and roses discussion, by a long shot, which helps it to be a rather enriching watch from start to finish.
Final Thoughts:
Towelhead has its heart in the right place with its education-based aggressiveness against Arab-American racism, but the tone and apt performances from its cast lack the intercommunication between the two to build Alan Ball's film into what it aspires to be. Instead, Summer Bishil and Aaron Eckhart grab the chance to show off their acting chops -- along with the rest of the ensemble, especially the Colette/Bello paradigm -- while the jittery and, at times, uncomfortably humorous subplot of growth and development adds a graceful, potent after-note. Alan Ball's assembled a somewhat satisfying character film all-around here, one well worth a Rental.
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